To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What a great way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is a recent acquisition: The Other Wife, a mesmerising psychological thriller from one of the greatest crime writers of today, Michael Robotham, the international bestselling author of THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS.

Beginning: (Day One)

From the top of Primrose Hill, silhouetted against the arriving day, the spires and domes of London look like the painted backdrop of a Pinewood sound stage waiting for actors to take their places and an unseen director to yell ‘Action‘.

I love this city. Built upon the ruins of the past, every square foot of it has been used, re-used, flattened, bombed, dismantled, rebuilt and flattened again until the layers of history are like sediments of rock that will one day be picked over by future archaeologists and treasure hunters.

***

Friday 56: He’s looking for a sympathetic ear, someone who understands the burden of being middle-aged, male, successful, white and married to an attractive wife. For a moment, we lock eyes and he realises that I’m not the right person and decides to let it go. He picks up his mug of tea and dunks a biscuit (56%).

***

Synopsis: Childhood sweethearts William and Mary have been married for sixty years. William is a celebrated surgeon, Mary a devoted wife. Both have a strong sense of right and wrong.

This is what their son, Joe O’Loughlin, has always believed. But when Joe is summoned to the hospital with news that his father has been brutally attacked, his world is turned upside down. Who is the strange woman crying at William’s bedside, covered in his blood – a friend, a mistress, a fantasist or a killer?

Against the advice of the police, Joe launches his own investigation. As he learns more, he discovers sides to his father he never knew – and is forcibly reminded that the truth comes at a price.

I haven’t read much by this author, although my fellow bookworms at work are always effusive in their praise of his writing.

I know that I have read one of his stand alone novels and believe I might have read one of the very first books in this series, although the fact that I haven’t linked that with this new title in your feature, leads me to hope that the series itself might also work okay as a group of stand alone stories, as I am notoriously bad at series reading!

Thanks for sharing, the myriad options for a storyline your extracts bring to mind are intriguing and make this a must read for me 🙂